On the map Africa looks like a fat pistol holster, and about where the lower extremity of the butt would nestle lies the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone. This little nook of Empire has suddenly become importantbecause of its only port.
In the late 18th Century, when Great Britain frowned on the slave trade, the port became the sanctuary of Africans who feared chains and the slave driver's whip; and so the place was called Freetown. But because of its malarial climate this black man's refuge was also called "The White Man's Grave."...
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